ECONOMY

Stocks Plummet On First Session After Downgrade

U.S. stocks plunged on Monday in the first session following Standard & Poor’s announcement late Friday that the country’s top AAA credit rating would be cut to AA+. The Dow closed down more than 600 points, for a loss of more than 5 percent.

It marked the first time the Dow has dipped below 11,000 since last November.

DOW JONES INDUS. AVG: 10,809.80 -634.76 -5.55%

S&P 500 INDEX: 1,119.46 -79.92 -6.66%

NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX: 2,357.69 -174.72 -6.90%

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President Obama, speaking in the afternoon to calm nervous investors, said the country’s economic woes problems are “eminently solvable.” Stocks, however, continued to slide as the president spoke.